Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more specifically, to a printing apparatus including a fixing unit that can perform fixing processing on a printed sheet in a step of conveying the printed sheet.
Description of the Related Art
A printing apparatus, which includes an image forming unit and a fixing unit and can perform single-side printing and double-side printing, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-328023 as a structure that performs fixing processing. Specifically, when double-side printing is performed, first, printing is performed on the surface of a sheet during the conveyance of the sheet and fixing is performed in the step of conveying the sheet. Then, the sheet is inverted, and printing is performed on the back of a sheet during the conveyance of the sheet in the same manner and fixing is performed in the step of conveying the sheet.
However, for example, even when the fixing processing of one surface of a sheet is not necessary in the case of double-side printing or fixing processing of both surfaces of the sheet is not necessary in a device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-328023, the sheet passes through the fixing unit in a series of steps of conveying the sheet after being printed. In this case, since the sheet passes through the fixing unit, heat is applied to, for example, an image printed on the sheet and the quality of the image may be changed.
In regard to this, it is possible to prevent the above-mentioned problem by turning off the fixing unit so that heat is not generated. However, since time is taken to turn on and off the fixing unit so that heat is generated and is not generated, throughput is reduced.